Apple wins German injunction against Motorola over 'slide-to-unlock'

A ruling handed down by the Munich I Regional Court on Thursday found that a number of Motorola products had infringed on Apple's slide-to-unlock patent, resulting in a permanent injunction against any offending devices.

Judge Dr. Peter Guntz deemed that Motorola's implementation of a screen unlocking feature used across its smartphone line is a copycat that infringes on Apple's slide-to-unlock patent image, which gives the iPhone maker the option to enforce a German injunction against a bond, reports FOSS Patent's Florian Mueller.

Apple's European patent, EP1964022, was awarded in October 2010 and is titled "Unlocking a Device by Performing Gestures on an Unlock Image." The company was also granted an identical patent a year later by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

The German court looked at three different Motorola implementations of gesture-based device unlocking and found that two infringed on Apple's patent, namely those used by the RAZR maker's Android smartphones.

The third example, used by Motorola's in its Xoom tablet, showed enough of a difference from Apple's patent to escape injunction. That particular implementation is similar to that of the Galaxy Note, Mueller says, and requires a user to swipe their finger from inside a circle to outside.

Apple's first win against Motorola could result in a complete reworking of how Motorola devices handle screen unlocking, though it seems that the judgment would only force a firmware modification and not the ban of device sales.

Mueller describes the outcome as possibly creating a "noticeable degradation of the user experience of Motorola's products," as the company will have to extend the "slide-to-unlock circle" found in the Xoom across its entire product line.

Should Apple choose to enforce the injunction, it would have to put up a mandatory bond that would cover damages and legal fees for incurred by Motorola if a future appeal finds that the original ruling was incorrect.

Motorola Xoom screen unlock implementation. | Source: ZDNet

Today's decision is a blow not only to Motorola Mobility, but to Android handset makers in general as Apple can bring similar claims to companies using the Google OS in Germany. For instance, the Cupertino, Calif., company is currently in the midst of asserting the same slide-to-unlock patent against Samsung in Mannheim.

Previously, Motorola was on a winning streak in the fast-acting German court system, with favorable judgments in a GPRS standard patent case as well as one related to push services, however it seems that the tide may be turning.

Apple's win follows an earlier outcome in February in which the Mannheim Regional Court dismissed a proposed 3G-relatedMotorola suit.

There will likely be an appeal to today's court ruling, however no official word has been given as to when that proceeding will take place.

... as in, any company behaving like 'patent trolls' with claims to things that should never have been patented in the first place.

From Wikipedia:

Quote:

Patent troll is a pejorative term used for a person or company who buys and enforces patents against one or more alleged infringers in a manner considered by the target or observers as unduly aggressive or opportunistic, often with no intention to further develop, manufacture or market the patented invention.

And why do you think that the slide to unlock implementation that Apple uses, should be freely copied and without patent protection?

This, to me, is the important part here. The unlock method on the Xoom is the standard method in both honeycomb and ice cream sandwich, so it looks like going forward, android will not be affected at all.

It would be ironic if the effect of this case would be to push other android manufacturers to upgrade to ice cream sandwich.

I don't see how that's a degradation as that method works better than the one found in 2.3 and earlier version of android

Absolutely!

- The 'circular unlock' feature on the Xoom, current HTC Sense and ICS devices is not only imune to these claims, but also vastly superior in function to other generic 'slide to unlock' designs... especially as user selectable apps can be added to the circle for quick access.

Anyway...This whole 'slide-to-unlock' along a designated path has become a bit old/tired i.e circa 2007, with Google already having come up with something far more innovative that's pretty much ready for implementation.

A ruling handed down by the Munich I Regional Court on Thursday found that a number of Motorola products had infringed on Apple's slide-to-unlock patent, resulting in a permanent injunction against any offending devices. ...

The thing I don't understand is why the Xoom unlock is excluded.

If you read the tech press, most assume this exclusion is due to the "predetermined path" qualifier in the patent, but if you read the patent this qualifier actually doesn't exist. I've read the thing twice now and it would seem that if it's valid at all, the Xoom method with the circle is pretty much *exactly* the kind of unlock method the patent refers to.

I've yet to read anything that justifies the exclusion of the Xoom circle opening thingie given that the other methods are supposedly clear violations.